Wishing all of our customers a very Happy New Year from Cranes-UK! This year we plan on filling our news page with relevant news about our business but also informative and helpful articles that will benefit our new and existing customers- so here's how to recover a vehicle with an electric winch!
Vehicles can be recovered from deep mud holes and tight spots with the use of electric winches. Using an appropriate winch that can perfectly match the requirements of a job is crucial for successful completion of a job. If you are looking to buy a winch for your vehicle, you may want to go for a winch that is overrated by 1.5 times. For example, if your vehicle weighs 3500kg, you should opt for a winch that can pull a 4000kg load to give you a little extra safety factor which will account for dynamic loads etc. The winches do always have a safety factor already, but professional riggers never like to cut it too close.
Here’s what you can do to select the perfect winch for your job:
- Evaluate the situation and check if you can identify other options to recover your vehicle. If you have other people travelling with you, you may want to inform them where cables and chains will be placed to relocate the vehicle to another area.
- Whenever you handle the metal rope, make sure that you use heavy duty gloves. This is mainly because of the fact that the winch cable wires may come out or splinter, causing injuries to the exposed skin. Clear the area near the tires by using a hand shovel. Create an upward slope towards the direction of the pull to facilitate movement.
Wrap a chain around the body of a sturdy pulling structure and attach your vehicle to it. If you are using a live tree, use a rubber mat, commonly of five feet square area, to preserve the bark. Wrap the rubber mat at the backside and make sure that it creates a protective layer between the tree and the metal chain. - Next, attach the chain to the winch’s cable hook. Make sure that you are able to wind the cable around the drum for at least three full rounds before you exert any power on the winch cable. In case you find the cable too short, use an extension cable with the clevis hooks. Ensure that individuals are moved away from the path of the cable-pulling winch.
It is not a good idea to pull your vehicle at an angle. The cable should be aligned smoothly and evenly around the winch drum. The cable should not get piled up around itself. - Attach the snatch block to pull your vehicle in a straight line using a rubber mat and the chain. This arrangement will rectify the angle of pull. Now attach the snatch block to another tree using the same approach that you have already used to loop the chain around a tree for the first time.
- Allow the winch cable to be pulled directly into the winch drum by letting the winch cable pass through the pulley of the snatch block. Notably, you can use this snatch block arrangement to pull any vehicle by using the winch drum assembly in the most appropriate manner.
